Kalisha Bonds Johnson, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC

Kalisha Bonds Johnson, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, is a nurse scientist, clinician, and advocate for African American persons living with dementia and their families. Her leadership, research, clinical expertise, and teaching are paving the way for national change.

Dr. Bonds Johnson currently serves as an assistant professor at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at Emory University’s Integrated Memory Care, and as the principal investigator of the D.E.C.I.D.E. Research Lab. The D.E.C.I.D.E. Research Lab focuses on creating culturally responsive programs to improve the quality of life of African American persons living with dementia and their family care partners as well as improving the communication between these families and their primary care providers.

Dr. Bonds Johnson has disseminated her findings through various publications, research abstracts, invited presentations, and media. Dr. Bonds Johnson earned an BSN from the University of Tennessee at Martin, a MSN from Vanderbilt University, PhD from Oregon Health & Sciences University, and postdoctoral training at Emory University.

Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD

Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD, is a geriatric psychiatrist and Distinguished Medical Scholar with Education Development Center; he is also Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Lubow contributes to leadership of the CDC BOLD Center of Excellence for Dementia Caregiving and the National Dementia Care Collaborative, a project supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation to accelerate health system adoption of evidence-based comprehensive care for dementia. In addition, he is currently or recently contributed to other projects related to the mental health of older adults, supported by the NIH, the US. Administration for Community Living, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Lubow was a 2016-17 fellow in the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program. He also served from 2015-19 as a non-federal member of the U.S. Department of HHS Advisory Council for Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services, where he was the nonfederal lead for the clinical care subcommittee including work he organized regarding people living with dementia as representatives informing national research efforts for dementia care. He is a staff psychiatrist at Butler Hospital and holds an MD from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.

David Aizuss, MD

David Aizuss, MD, a board-certified ophthalmologist living in Calabasas, California, is Board Chair of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Aizuss runs Ophthalmology Associates of the Valley, a multispecialty ophthalmology group in southern California. He has previously served as chief of surgery at Encino Hospital, as vice chief of staff at Providence Cedars Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, and as chair of the board of the Specialty Surgery Center of Encino.

First elected to the AMA Board of Trustees in June 2020, Dr. Aizuss was active in organized medicine and the AMA early in his career, attending his first AMA Annual Meeting while in medical school at Northwestern University and later serving on the AMA Medical Student Section Governing Council.

Active in a broad range of key leadership positions in his state and specialty societies, Dr. Aizuss has served as president of the California Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, the Los Angeles Society of Ophthalmology, and the Los Angeles County Medical Association. He was elected to the California Medical Association Board of Trustees in 2010, serving as board chair from 2014-2017 and president in 2018.

Dr. Aizuss completed nearly 40 years on the faculty of the UCLA Stein Eye Institute and David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine as assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology in 2023.